John Nelson writes….
Fortunately, the reality isn’t nearly so grim. In fact, there is some good news here. If you fell for my intentionally misleading headline, then you might benefit by catching up on the latest news on these two issues.
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Rob Bessler writes…
Happy holidays to all.
While working the slow nights over the holidays, or while on the beach, I encourage you to take the time to get involved in the challenge of our times centered around meaningful improvements to healthcare delivery in the U.S. The best place to start is to get educated.
One of the great challenges facing our nation is healthcare reform. The enormity of our system, the complexity of all the different stake holders and the spiraling costs make the situation seem almost helpless. In the book, (more…)
Robert Chang writes…
I was standing in the elevator with four other people, on call during my residency. It was late but I had finally picked up my burger with fries on my third try to get down to the cafeteria without getting interrupted, so I was happy. I started to grumble inwardly as the elevator slowed before my floor, my fries leaking heat as the door opened. A patient was sitting in a wheelchair with a transporter at his back. The elevator people waited but (more…)
Mike Radzienda writes…
Hospitalists’ certitude number one-hundred-one: “It is never a good thing to be speaking with the chairman of Emergency Medicine at 1:00 AM on a Monday.”
And there I was trying to explain why the admitting medical officer hadn’t returned a page to the emergency department (ED) for thirty minutes; and why, when he did, he seemed “so overwhelmed.”
This was not flu pandemic season; it was just one of those busy “full moon” nights. Our hospitalists (more…)
Rob Bessler writes…
Currently consult codes go away. This will lead to hospitalists having to use the admission codes selectively combined with using more follow up codes for times when they assume care of patients.
Admission codes rvu’s and hence payment are less than the high level consult codes which mean less revenue. Some practices use the prolonged service codes to obtain additional revenue for services performed. Some payers pay for this and most don’t. Currently there is a 21% cut that goes into effect January one. All experts seem to think a patch will get passed to prevent this. Some say (more…)
John Nelson writes…
As I’ve written before (here and here), nearly every specialty in medicine is continuing to turn to the hospitalist model. I’m aware of community, and in many cases academic, hospitalist practices in nearly every specialty in medicine including surgical (general surgery) hospitalists, orthopedic hospitalist, and more. The list includes psychiatry, obstetrics, gastroenterology, infectious disease, and on and on. Someone once told me he knew of a dermatology hospitalist somewhere. (I’d love to talk to this doctor, but never got any details and wonder if this was a myth or a very loose interpretation of what makes one a hospitalist.)
How can we document this growth?
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